Editorial

Rarely, if ever, has Malta had as clear a choice to make in an election as that which the electorate has before it on Saturday.

It is a clear-cut but profound choice: do we want to become part of an expanding European Union that is bound to grow even further in time or are we to stay out, opting instead for a loose arrangement that has yet to be "invented" for us?

Had this election been a straight fight between the two main parties over performance, the choice would still have been relatively easy, for Alfred Sant's 1996-1998 government did not exactly show it could deliver the goods. The party leadership could not even handle an internal party crisis. This eventually led to the party losing majority representation in parliament and to a crushing electoral defeat.

Even though the Nationalists may be considered to have been in government for far too long now and that in normal circumstances many would have wished to see an alternation of power, which is the very essence of democracy, can we, today, afford not to put the Nationalists back in power? Can we afford to throw away all that we have won in the negotiations with Brussels?

We are not deciding about party politics this time, but about the future of the country and of its people. In short, it is a decision that has a deep national dimension that goes far beyond the interests of a political party.

The electorate has already said yes to Malta joining the EU, but the Labour Party has not even had the courage to accept the people's will as expressed in the March 8 referendum.

This fact alone has, quite rightly, placed Labour's claim to its democratic credentials as understood by all, both in Malta and abroad, in doubt. The deep concern which Labour's disrespect to the people's will has raised since the referendum has, in turn, generated fear over the way Labour would govern if the MLP were to be returned to power. The concern assumes even greater proportion when considered against Labour's own record, when they held on to power against the will of the majority.

Next appointment

Labour are now proposing a second referendum if it is elected, but the choice it plans to give, that between "partnership" and membership, is immediately flawed because the island would have lost the membership package by the time it negotiates its "partnership" proposal, if it manages to do so in the first place!

The electorate needs to confirm the decision taken on March 8 with greater force so that Malta will join nine other countries in the new Europe being fashioned today. Labour's proposal is so poor next to what has already been negotiated that it is not even worth considering. Indeed, its "partnership" idea does not even exist as yet.

Labour do not deserve to be in government, certainly not this time when they are threatening to take away from us a historic opportunity for the island to join hands with the people of nine other countries in becoming part of a bloc that seeks to promote peace in prosperity and security.

Malta has come a long way since it made the first move to join the EU. Its European vocation was first expressed in no uncertain manner by George Borg Olivier when he signed the first association agreement with the then European Economic Community. Eddie Fenech Adami has translated that vocation into a reality.

Our next appointment is on Wednesday in Athens where the man who brought us all the way to this historic point is anxious to be there to sign the accession treaty, once, that is, we trust him with the administration of the country again.

The majority who said yes on March 8 share with him the desire to see this small but vigorous state take its rightful place in the European Union. But Malta can only meet this appointment if the electorate, in its absolute majority, chooses the Nationalist Party in Saturday's general election.